St Anne's Sunday Services

St Anne’s Church Sunday Services

The services at St Anne’s are relaxed and fairly informal. On a Sunday morning we have two services. The first is at 9.00am and is a quieter service, often with no songs or hymns. This service is a Holy Communion on the 1st, 2nd and 4th Sundays. On the 3rd and 5th Sundays we have a reflective Morning Prayer. The service lasts about 45 minutes including a 10 minute sermon. There are usually about 25-30 people at this service.

Our second service is at 10.30am. This is different according to the week.

The first Sunday’s service is held in our Orchard Rooms, close to the church. We call this service ‘Celebration’. The service is designed to be friendly for new people to our church whether they are new to Christianity or not. We start at about 10.15 with a light breakfast of tea, coffee, squash etc. and croissants, pastries and fruit. The service itself then starts at about 10.30. This is a good way to relax and get to know people. The service is led by our band with a short sermon and is the most casual of all our services.

On the second Sunday we have a Holy Communion service. Inevitably this is a more structured service and lasts about 75 minutes including a 20 minute sermon. We welcome people of any Christian denomination to take communion with us. If you don’t normally take communion, then you are welcome to either come up for a blessing or just stay in your seat. Hymns and songs are projected for the congregation to see. There are hymn books available if you prefer.

The other Sundays are Morning Praise services. These are relaxed services with hymns and songs led by our choir and a piano, organ or band. Words for the songs are projected onto a screen which is often also used for the sermon. The sermons are about 20 minutes long and the service last about an hour.

At all our 10.30 services we normally have about eighty people. All services in the church normally start with the Choir and the Ministers following the cross from the church door to their pews at the front. The congregation stand whilst they come in. Whilst the services are going on we have children and youth groups who have their own teaching in our Orchard Rooms. The children and teenagers usually join us at the end of the service. After these services we meet for tea, coffee and a chat in the Orchard Rooms which gives a chance to meet other members of the congregation.

Many people who are new to church worry about what to wear. At St Anne’s anything goes. Most people dress casually. Some people like to dress up for church and that is also completely acceptable, of course. In the church we have wooden pews either side of a central aisle. There are hymn books and bibles at the end of the pews.

When you arrive at the door of the church, you will be met by one or two of our Welcoming Team. They will provide you with our News Sheet which also contains the details of the 10.30am service. If you need a book to follow the service, these will be given to you. We don’t take a collection during our services. If you wish to contribute towards the church, then there is a collection basket by the Welcomers desk.

We have toilets in the Orchard Rooms and the Church Warden or one of the Welcomers can direct you to those should you need them during the service. If you have very young pre-school children who are getting restless, then you can take them to the vestry behind the organ if you wish. There are some toys in there. The service is relayed over a loudspeaker in the Vestry.

We really enjoy our Sunday services at St Anne’s and hope that you will enjoy joining us each week.